{"id":256753,"date":"2026-01-21T21:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T21:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/256753\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T21:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T21:00:09","slug":"nasas-artemis-ii-rocket-and-spacecraft-make-their-way-to-launch-pad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/256753\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s Artemis II Rocket and Spacecraft Make Their Way to Launch Pad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This Jan. 17, 2026, image shows NASA\u2019s SLS (Space Launch System) and Orion spacecraft rolling out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA\u2019s massive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/humans-in-space\/exploration-ground-systems\/the-crawlers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crawler-Transporter<\/a>, upgraded for the Artemis program, carries the powerful SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft to Launch Pad 39B in preparation for the Artemis II mission.<\/p>\n<p>Moving at a maximum speed of just\u00a00.82 mph, the crawler carried the towering Moon rocket and spacecraft slowly but surely toward the pad, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/blogs\/missions\/2026\/01\/17\/nasas-moonbound-artemis-ii-rocket-reaches-launch-pad\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reaching its destination<\/a> at 6:42 p.m. EST after a\u00a0nearly 12-hour\u00a0journey. The Artemis II test flight will send NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen on an approximately 10-day journey around the Moon and back. It is another step toward new U.S.-crewed missions to the Moon\u2019s surface, leading to a sustained presence on the Moon that will help the agency prepare to send the first astronauts \u2013 Americans \u2013 to Mars.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/nasahqphoto\/albums\/72177720331471551\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">See more photos from the rollout.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Image credit: NASA\/Sam Lott<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This Jan. 17, 2026, image shows NASA\u2019s SLS (Space Launch System) and Orion spacecraft rolling out of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[10557,61,60,82,247],"class_list":["post-256753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-artemis-2","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}